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Priller
"Recovering enemy casualties is hardly the function of our troops." Hauptmann Priller was a Heer officer serving in occupied France. He and his men entered a bombed out French town searching for an American paratrooper, Captain Riddell, unaware that he, along with a squad lead by Sergeant Chip Saunders, was in a nearby church. Upon seeing Riddell hanging from the steeple, Priller initially ordered Feldwebel Dekker to shoot him, but then stopped him, noticing Riddell wasn't moving and was probably dead. Suddenly, an explosion in the distance attracted the Germans' attention, and Priller left in his command car to go and investigate. Contacting his superior, an oberst, over the radio, Priller was told that American paratroopers had destroyed a tunnel the Germans were using. Priller and his men were still in the town, lingering near the church, preventing Sergeant Saunders' squad from getting the injured Riddell down from the steeple. Dekker had an encounter with a French boy, Lucien. Lucien indicated he wished to go into the church for morning mass, and Dekker didn't see any reason why he couldn't, allowing the boy to go in. Instead of attending mass, however, Lucien told Father Bomar about the "dead" American hanging from the church. Bomar spoke with Priller, begging him to get the dead body down off of the building. Priller refused, insisting that it wasn't the duty of his men to retrieve the bodies of dead enemies. He was also suspicious of the priest, explaining to Bomar that he thought it likely that the paratroopers who blew up the tunnel had assistance from French freedom fighters. Insisting that Bomar go about business as usual, he instructed him to warn his congregation against interfering with the Germans in the town, and allowed him to leave. Later that day, Priller received orders to withdraw from the town and destroy the steeple of the church to deny the enemy any possible observation posts, much to Bomar's horror. He went inside the church, intending to inform the Americans hiding in the belfry of the church's impending destruction. A suspicious Priller followed him and engaged him in conversation, asking why he wanted to go into the belfry. Bomar claimed it was to ring the bell and summon the townspeople, so he could explain to them that the church was going to be destroyed. Priller refused to allow it, fearful that a large gathering of French townspeople being told news they didn't want to hear would lead to violence against his men. He went into the house he was using as his headquarters. Emerging sometime later as the Germans were moving out, he found Dekker setting up explosives to destroy the church, and, glancing up, saw a man in a German soldier's uniform attempting to retrieve the body of Captain Riddell. Amused, he asked Dekker what the problem was, and was told it was a soldier named Hans who wanted Riddell's boots. He laughed and yelled up to "Hans," clearly having difficulty with the heavy American, wishing him good luck and urging him to hurry. What neither he nor Dekker suspected was that "Hans" was actually Sergeant Saunders: the real Hans had encountered the American soldiers in the belfry and been killed, with Saunders donning Hans' uniform and using his desire for Riddell's boots as a cover to climb out and retrieve the very much alive paratrooper before the church was blown up. When Hans took too long for his comrades' liking, an annoyed Dekker went inside and started up the steps, only to be shot and killed by Saunders. The gunfire alerted the Germans outside, including Priller. Drawing his sidearm, the hauptmann joined his men in shooting up at the Americans holed up in the tower, but from their elevated position, the enemy had the advantage, and Priller and all of his men were shot and killed. Awards *Iron Cross 1st Class *General Assault Badge Gallery priller_on_the_radio.jpg| priller_closeup.jpg| priller_daytime.jpg| priller_is_suspicious.jpg| Category:Heer Category:Captains Category:Officers Category:TV Show Characters Category:Combat! Category:Robert Cornthwaite Category:Iron Cross 1st Class Winners Category:General Assault Badge Winners Category:Quotes Category:Galleries Category:Deceased Characters Category:Deaths by Shooting